Warning: contains spoilers for Dragon Ball Super: Super HeroThe new Dragon Ball Super movie, Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero, has been praised for its use of Gohan and Piccolo as main characters, and the inclusion of their new forms. But this new attention comes with quite the catch. As far as the manga is concerned, Dragon Ball Super’s new movie is considered a 'parallel' story, and not canonical.
As news about Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero continues to pour out, one interview by the head of Shueisha's Dragon Ball Room, long Iyoku, has shed some light on the creative direction the team working on the movie decided to go in. Apart from other details about how the movie was conceptualized, and later produced, this interview also contains information relevant to Gohan and Piccolo within the Dragon Ball Super manga. Alongside the creative direction for the movie, some information given in this interview may point to how Dragon Ball Super's manga will continue to be editorialized in the future, with or without Akira Toriyama's involvement in the projects.
In a translation of the interview by Twitter user @Cipher_db, a plethora of information is divulged that has heavy ramifications for the future of Dragon Ball content. It's stated that bringing back the Red Ribbon army and selecting Gohan and Piccolo as the main characters were both choices made earlier in the production of the movie, both decisions that may be relevant to the future direction of the manga. More pertinently, however, was the information revealed regarding the nature of Gohan and Piccolo's new transformations- Orange Piccolo and Beast Gohan. According to what's said here, the Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero movie is meant to exist only as a sequel to the events of Dragon Ball Super: Broly, and not as a body of work canon to the Dragon Ball Super manga. This of course means that Gohan and Piccolo will not be transforming into either of their new and exclusive transformations within Super's manga.
It seems as if Piccolo and Gohan will not be gaining their differently-colored transformations in the manga anytime soon, but this isn't all bad news. For one, the transformations featured in the movie are quite honestly a bit contrived. There are much better ways to work in some kind of transformation or powerup for characters like Piccolo than having him wish for his potential to be unlocked by the Dragon Balls. It’s powerups like this that make a lot of Dragon Ball Super’s new forms feel completely unearned and creatively bankrupt at times. The potential unlocked trope has been so overused by this point that Gohan alone has had his potential unlocked twice then re-unlocked on top of that. On the topic of Gohan, his new form feels like a rehash of what made fans enjoy Super Saiyan 2 decades ago, but without any of the long-term build-up and emotional payoff. Instead of having to use these more generic forms, Dragon Ball Super’s manga actually has a chance to create more meaningful and interesting storylines for its cast of characters.While giving characters like Gohan and Piccolo a chance to shine is a much-needed breath of fresh air, it shouldn't come at the cost of the story's integrity.
While Gohan and Piccolo won’t be transforming into “Beast Gohan” or “Orange Piccolo” in Dragon Ball Super’s manga, there is still hope for these characters to reenter the spotlight now that the teams working on Dragon Ball know without a doubt that fans want to see characters besides Goku and Vegeta. The success of Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero may have some extremely positive influence on the manga going forwards and fan-favorite characters like Gohan and Piccolo should reappear more often thanks to this reception.